INTERNATIONAL - Airbnb plans to make its IPO registration public next week, putting it on course for a NewYork stock market debut in December even as the Covid-19pandemic intensifies, two people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The US home rental company's planned debut on the Nasdaq is set to be one of the largest stock market listings of 2020,amid a pandemic that has seen demand for house rentals surge as vacationers snub hotels to practice social distancing.
Airbnb's initial public offering filing will give outsiders their first detailed look into Airbnb's business, shedding lighton the company's reinvention after the coronavirus outbreakpushed it to shift focus from city apartments to holiday homes.
The United States set a one-day record for new coronaviruscases on Wednesday, with at least 102,591 new infectionsreported, according to a Reuters tally.
Airbnb plans to set an IPO price range and kick off aninvestor roadshow in December, the sources said, cautioning thatthe timing is subject to market conditions.
Reuters reported last month that Airbnb was aiming to raisearound $3 billion, and that it could achieve a valuation of morethan $30 billion in the IPO.
The U.S. election diminished uncertainty for IPO hopefulsthis week, as the prospect of a divided government that wouldnot raise taxes fueled a stock market rally. The CBOE volatilityindex, a gauge for short-term volatility that is closelymonitored by IPO candidates, has hit a two-week low afterspiking to a four-month high in the run-up to the election.
It is already a blockbuster year for IPOs, with the likes ofrecord label Warner Music Group, data analytics firmPalantir Technologies and data warehouse companySnowflake Inc going public this year.
It would follow a dramatic recovery from earlier this year.Airbnb secured emergency funding from investors, includingSilver Lake and Sixth Street Partners, in April, amid the firstwave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company said in July that customers had booked more thanone million nights in a single day for the first time sinceMarch 3.
Shares of U.S. online travel agency Booking Holdings Inc, which some Airbnb investors use as a conservativepublic market proxy for its own stock, have rebounded more than50% in the past eight months.(Reporting by Joshua Franklin in Boston and Anirban Sen inBengaluruEditing by Gerry Doyle and Pravin Char)